The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes
Well! your Honour must know, before anything else, that they call
me Lazarillo de Tormes, and that I am the son of Thomé Gonçales and
Antonia Perez, natives of Tejares,[9] a village near Salamanca. My
birth was in the river Tormes,[10] for which reason I have the river
for a surname, and it was in this manner.
[9] Tejares is a small village on the left bank of the river
Tormes, about two miles from Salamanca. It consists of a church
dedicated to San Pedro, and about fifty houses on the skirts of a
hill.
[10] The river Tormes rises in the Sierra de Gredos, a range of
hills dividing Estremadura from Old Castille, on the confines
of the province of Avila. Its chief sources are a large sheet
of water called the “Laguna de Gredos,” and a perennial stream
called “Tornella.” Receiving several streams from the Gredos
hills, the Tormes flows north, passing by Alba de Tormes, where
there is a stone bridge; and then turns north-west, passing
Salamanca, where there is another fine stone bridge, and Ledesma.
Finally, it falls into the Douro, on the Portuguese frontier. The
Tormes turns many flour mills.
My father, whom God pardon, had charge of a flour mill which was on the
banks of that river. He was the miller there for over fifteen years,
and my mother, being one night taken with me in the mill, she gave
birth to me there. So that I may say with truth that I was born in the
river.
When I was a child of eight years old, they accused my father of
certain misdeeds done to the sacks of those who came to have their
corn ground. He was taken into custody, and confessed and denied not,
suffering persecution for justice’s sake. So I trust in God that he is
in glory, for the Evangelist tells us that such are blessed. At that
time there was a certain expedition against the Moors[11] and among the
adventurers was my father, who was banished for the affair already
mentioned. He went in the position of attendant on a knight who also
went, and, with his master, like a loyal servant, he ended his life.
[11] This expedition against the Moors started from Malaga under
the command of Don Garcia de Toledo in 1510, when Lazarillo was
seven years old. The fleet first touched at Sicily and then made
for the island of Los Gelves, off the African coast, between
Tunis and Tripoli, now called Zerbi. With Toledo were Diego
de Vera and Count Pedro Navarro. Zerbi was a low sandy island
covered with palm-trees, ruled by a Sheikh of its own. The army
landed on the 8th of August 1510. But the Spaniards fell into an
ambuscade and were defeated, Toledo being among the slain. Four
thousand were killed or taken prisoners. The rest escaped to the
ships and returned to Sicily. Toledo was a grandson of the first
Duke of Alva.
[Sidenote: Death of Lazaro’s father, and his mother goes into service.]
My widowed mother, finding herself without husband or home, determined
to betake herself to the good things so as to be among them; so she
went to live in the city. She hired a small house, and was employed to
prepare victuals for certain students. She also washed the clothes of
the stable-boys who had charge of the horses of the Comendador de la
Magdalena.[12] Thus she frequented the stables, she and a dark-coloured
man, who was one of those who had the care of the horses. They came to
know each other. [Sidenote: Flitting.] Sometimes he came to our house
late, and went away in the morning. At other times he came to the door
in the day-time, with the excuse that he wanted to buy eggs, and walked
into the house. At first I did not like him, for I was afraid of his
colour and his ugly face. But when I saw that his coming was the sign
of better living, I began to like him, for he always brought pieces of
meat, bread, and in the winter, fuel to warm us.
[12] Comendadores were knights of the Orders of Santiago,
Calatrava, and Alcantara. Each had a title affixed to their
knighthood. The Comendador of La Magdalena was a knight of the
Order of Alcantara.
[Sidenote: A swarthy stepfather and a little brown brother.]
This intercourse went on until one day my mother gave me a pretty
little brown brother, whom I played with and helped to keep warm.
I remember once that when my stepfather was fondling the child, it
noticed that my mother and I were white, and that he was not. It
frightened the child, who ran to my mother, pointing with its finger
and saying, “Mother, he is ugly!” To this he replied laughing; but I
noticed the words of my little brother, and, though so young, I said to
myself, “How many there are in the world who run from others because
they do not see themselves in them.”
It was our fate that the intimacy of the Zayde, for so they called my
stepfather, came to the ears of the steward. [Sidenote: The punishment
for receiving and living on stolen goods.] On looking into the matter
he found that half the corn he gave out for the horses was stolen,
also that the fuel, aprons, pillions, horse-cloths, and blankets were
missing, and that when nothing else was left, the horse-shoes were
taken. With all this my mother was helped to bring up the child. We
need not wonder at a priest or a friar, when one robs the poor, and the
other his female devotees to help a friend such as himself, when the
love of a poor stable-lad brings him to this.
All I have related was proved, because they cross-questioned me with
threats, and being a child I answered and let out all I knew from
fear, [Sidenote: Stolen horse-shoes.] down to certain horse-shoes
which, by my mother’s order, I sold to a blacksmith. They flogged my
unhappy stepfather, and put my mother on the accustomed penance as a
punishment. An order was given that she was not to enter the stables of
the Comendador, nor to receive the flogged Zayde in her house.
The poor woman complied with the sentence that she might not lose
all; and to avoid danger and silence evil tongues she went away into
service. [Sidenote: Lazaro helps at the inn. Takes service with a
blind man.] She was employed in the open gallery of an inn, and so
she contrived to rear the little brother, though suffering from many
difficulties. She raised him until he could walk, and me until I was a
fine little boy, who went for wine and lights for the guests, and for
anything else they wanted.
FIRST MASTER
HOW LAZARO TOOK SERVICE WITH A BLIND MAN
At that time a blind man came to lodge at the inn, who, seeing that I
would do to lead him, asked for me from my mother. [Sidenote: Lazaro
enters the service of a blind man.] She gave me to him, saying that
I was the son of a good father, and boasting that he had been killed
at the Island of Gelves.[13] She told the blind man that she trusted
in God that I would not turn out a worse man than my father, and she
begged him to treat me well and look after me, as I was an orphan.
He answered that he would do so, and that he received me not as his
servant but as his son. Thus it was that I began to serve and to lead
my new master. We were in Salamanca for some days, but, as the earnings
were not to my master’s liking, he determined to go somewhere else.
[Sidenote: Lazaro’s farewell to his mother.] When we were about to
depart, I went to see my mother, and, both weeping, she gave me her
blessing and said, “I shall see you no more. Strive to be good, and may
God direct your ways. You have been brought up, and are now put with a
good master. Farewell!” And so I went away to my master who was waiting
for me.
[13] See note, p. 5.
[Sidenote: A cruel trick of the wicked old blind man.]
We went out of Salamanca and came to the bridge. There is, at the
entrance of it, an animal of stone[14] which almost has the shape of a
bull. The blind man told me to go near this animal, and, being there,
he said, “Lazaro, put your ear against this bull, and you will hear a
great noise inside.” I did so, like a simpleton, believing it to be as
he said. When he felt that my head was against the stone, he raised his
hand and gave me a tremendous blow against the devil of a bull, so that
I felt the pain for more than three days. [Sidenote: Lazaro and the
blind man.] Then he said to me, “This will teach you that a blind man’s
boy ought to be one point more knowing than the devil himself”; and he
laughed heartily at his joke. It seemed to me that, in an instant, I
awoke from my simplicity in which I had reposed from childhood. I
said to myself, “This man says truly that it behoves me to keep my eyes
open, for I am alone and have to think for myself.”
[14] There was a huge mass of granite rudely carved in the shape
of an animal, which had been on the bridge from time immemorial;
and which Lazarillo thought was like a bull. Its great weight
was considered a danger, and it was removed about thirty years
ago. It is now in the vestibule of the cloister of San Domingo at
Salamanca, but without a head.
We set out on our road, and in a very few days I showed myself to
be sprightly, which pleased the blind man, and he said, “I can give
you neither gold nor silver, but I can teach you much in the ways of
getting a livelihood.” [Sidenote: Wonderful sagacity and cleverness of
the blind man.] It was so that, after a few days, he showed me many
things, and being blind himself, he enlightened and guided me in the
ways of life. I mention these trifles to your Honour to show how much
knowledge men must have when they are down, and to keep from falling
when they are exalted.
Speaking of the good there was in my blind man, your Honour must
know that since God created the world He has not made a being more
astute and sagacious. In his own line he was unequalled. He knew a
hundred or more prayers of the choir, he recited in a low and very
tuneful voice, he put on a devout and very humble countenance when
he recited, without making faces or gestures as others usually do.
Besides this he had a hundred other ways and means of getting money. He
knew how to make prayers on different occasions, for women who were
childless, for those who were about to bear children, and for those
who had married unhappily, that their husbands might like them well.
He foretold whether a woman would have a boy or a girl. In the matter
of medicine he said that Galen did not possess half his knowledge for
curing toothaches, fainting fits, or illnesses of mothers. Finally, no
one mentioned what pain or illness he or she was suffering from, but
he told them at once--do this, you should do that, gather such a herb,
take such a root. In this way he went with all the world after him,
especially the women. They believed whatever he said, and from them he
drew great profits by the arts I have described, for he gained more in
a month than a hundred other blind men would in a year. I also desire
that your Honour should know that, in spite of all he acquired and had,
I never met a man so avaricious and stingy, insomuch that he nearly
killed me with hunger, depriving me of the necessaries of life.
[Sidenote: The blind man’s way of making money and his avarice.]
I tell the truth, that if, by way of subtlety and cunning, I had not
found a remedy, I should many times have succumbed to starvation. With
all his knowledge and experience, I managed so well that, oftener than
not, I got the best of it. On account of these matters, there were
infernal rows between us, of which I will relate some but not all.
He carried the bread, and all the rest of his things, in a linen
knapsack, closing the mouth with an iron chain having a padlock and
key. He put in and took out his things himself, using great vigilance,